Miguel García González, Carlos Pera Madrazo, Ángel Bernardos Rodríguez, Manuel Gómez Gutiérrez, J. Ignacio Herrero, José Mir Pallardó, Jorge Ortiz de Urbina, Pascual Parrilla Paricio – 21 April 2005 – Triple therapy combining an anticalcineurin agent, corticosteroids, and azathioprine (AZA) in liver transplantation has been frequently applied, particularly in Europe. Debates have arisen concerning the use of a third drug (AZA), mainly in patients receiving tacrolimus (TAC).

Ayano Inui, Tsuyoshi Sogo, Haruki Komatsu, Hiroshi Miyakawa, Tomoo Fujisawa – 21 April 2005 – Graft dysfunction mimicking autoimmune hepatitis rarely develops after liver transplantation for nonautoimmune disease. The mechanism(s) and causes of de novo autoimmune hepatitis are unknown. We examined autoantibodies serially in a patient with de novo autoimmune hepatitis and in patients without de novo autoimmune hepatitis after liver transplantation.

Saiho Ko, Ichiro Tanaka, Hiromichi Kanehiro, Hideki Kanokogi, Jun‐ichi Ori, Midori Shima, Akira Yoshioka, Alan Giles, Yoshiyuki Nakajima – 21 April 2005 – The cause of hemophilia is deficiency of coagulation factor VIII production in the liver, which can be cured by liver transplantation. Because the hepatic function of hemophilia patients is quite normal except for production of factor VIII, auxiliary partial orthotopic liver transplantation (APOLT) is beneficial in that patient survival is secured by preserving native liver even in the event of graft loss.

Anna S. F. Lok – 21 April 2005

21 April 2005

Noriyo Yamashiki, Ryosuke Tateishi, Haruhiko Yoshida, Shuichiro Shiina, Takuma Teratani, Shinpei Sato, Norio Mine, Yuji Kondo, Takao Kawabe, Masao Omata – 21 April 2005 – The dropout from the waiting list for liver transplantation among patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is reportedly as high as 12% to 40% per year, mostly due to tumor progression. Considering the scarcity of donor organs, it would be beneficial if we could retain them within the Milan criteria with a bridging therapy.

Marco Vivarelli, Alessandro Cucchetti, Fabio Piscaglia, Giuliano La Barba, Luigi Bolondi, Antonino Cavallari, Antonio Daniele Pinna – 21 April 2005 – To confirm recent observations about the relationship between immunosuppression and the recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after liver transplantation (LT), we retrospectively analyzed 70 consecutive HCC patients who underwent LT and received cyclosporine (CsA)–based immunosuppression.

Gero Puhl, Klaus‐D. Schaser, Daniel Pust, Katrin Köhler, Brigitte Vollmar, Michael D. Menger, Peter Neuhaus, Utz Settmacher – 21 April 2005 – Microcirculatory disturbances are an initial causative determinant in hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury. The aim of this study was to assess sinusoidal perfusion during human liver transplantation using orthogonal polarization spectral imaging and to evaluate the significance of intraoperative microcirculation for early postoperative graft function.

Ken‐ichi Takahashi, Kazuo Chin, Kohei Ogawa, Mureo Kasahara, Takanori Sakaguchi, Satoshi Hasegawa, Kensuke Sumi, Takaya Nakamura, Akira Tamaki, Michiaki Mishima, Takashi Nakamura, Koichi Tanaka – 21 April 2005 – A 16‐year‐old male with exertional heat stroke (EHS) had extensive hepatocellular damage, severe rhabdomyolysis, renal failure, and coma. Hemodiafiltration was started on day 2 and living donor liver transplantation was performed on day 3. He received continuous mechanical ventilation with intubation before and after the surgery.

Yuichi Tanaka, Hironori Haga, Hiroto Egawa, Tomoko Okuno, Aya Miyagawa‐Hayashino, Tatsuaki Tsuruyama, Michiyo Kambe, Hiroyuki Marusawa, Tsutomu Chiba, Toshiaki Manabe – 21 April 2005 – Several reports have shown detection of recipient‐type ABO histo‐blood group antigens (r‐ABOAg) in the liver allograft, which may represent either true intragraft chimerism or other events such as cell injury. Little is known about factors that affect the timing and extent of r‐ABOAg expression in the graft.